September 25, 2025 edition of the Bay Area Reporter
Liz Highleyman
Dr. Stephanie Cohen is the director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s STI/HIV Prevention Branch.
SF sees uptick in new HIV cases
by Liz Highleyman
San Francisco saw a small increase in new HIV diagnoses last year, rising from an alltime low of 140 cases in 2023 to 146 cases in 2024, according to the latest HIV epidemiology annual report from the SF Department of Public Health, released September 19. The report shows an increase in diagnoses among Black people and women; in 2022, cases rose among Latinos.
“The increase from 140 to 146 is not alarming – it’s a similar number. But what we want to be seeing is an ongoing decline in HIV infections,” Dr. Stephanie Cohen, director of DPH’s STI/HIV Prevention Branch, told the Bay Area Reporter in an interview. “What this says to us is that we need even more thoughtful, strategic, and intensive efforts to reach those who are still acquiring HIV to get to our Getting to Zero goals.”
The city’s Getting to Zero program aims to reduce new HIV transmissions and HIV deaths by 90%, in addition to reducing stigma.
Last year’s 4.3% uptick follows two years of declines after a brief rise at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But overall, the long-term trend shows a decrease in annual diagnoses over the past two decades, down from 543 new cases in 2006.
“When you look back at the bigger picture, what we see is a pretty steep decline in HIV infections after the rollout of PrEP and the embrace of treatment as prevention, though progress has slowed in recent years,” Cohen said.
Overall, 94% of people diagnosed with HIV in 2024 were linked to care within one month and 79% achieved a viral load below 200 on antiretroviral treatment within six months. Among those diagnosed in 2023 – the latest year with complete follow-up data – 87% achieved viral suppression within one year.
A total of 11,552 San Francisco residents were living with diagnosed HIV at the end of 2024, according to the report. Thanks to effective treatment that enables HIV-positive people to live longer, 75% are now age 50 or older, and 29% are 65 or older.
“HIV diagnoses in San Francisco have declined by 53% over the past 10 years. This report shows that as a city, we must continue to remain persistent,” Health Director Daniel Tsai said in a statement. “HIV is a serious public health issue in San Francisco and across the country, and SF DPH is committed to the important work that helps prevent people from getting HIV and improving outcomes for people who are diagnosed with HIV.”
Disparities persist
As previously reported, Latino men had the highest HIV diagnosis rate for the first time in 2022, but last year Black men once again pulled ahead. There were 40 new cases among Black people in 2024 compared with 27 in 2023, a 48% increase. Latino people, however, accounted for the largest share of new diagnoses (32%), followed by Black people and white people (both at 27%). Asians accounted for just 14% of new diagnoses despite making up more than a third of the city’s population.
Also notable in this year’s report is the near doubling of HIV diagnoses among cisgender women, from 14 cases in 2023 to 26 cases in 2024, with the majority of cases among Black
SF bound by community at Folsom fair
by John Ferrannini
Aquarter of a million people are expected to descend on San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood for the 42nd annual Folsom Street Fair on Sunday, bringing together leatherfolk and kinksters of all stripes.
The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. between Seventh and 13th streets, with Howard Street on the north and Harrison Street on the south. Folsom Street is the main thoroughfare where businesses and community organizations will pitch their booths.
There is a $10-$20 suggested donation at the entrances. A donation sticker gives one $2 off drinks at the outdoor bars.
Folsom Street Executive Director Angel Adeyoha touted the live entertainment revelers have to look forward to September 28.
“The live music stage is going to have an act I’m really excited about – Cain Culto – a really amazing queer musician currently in L.A., but is from Kentucky,” Adeyoha, who is queer and nonbinary, said in a phone interview.
Culto did not return a request for comment for this report.
Continued Adeyoha, “The drag stage is having an hourlong takeover by Peaches Christ, and the Terror Vault performers. That’s going to be really fun.”
That will be at The Stud stage, which is on Eighth Street between Folsom and Howard streets, from 3 to 4 p.m.
“Folsom has always been about pushing boundaries, so it’s the perfect place for Terror Vault to let some of our witches out of the crypt,” Peaches Christ stated to the B.A.R., referring to the drag/Halloween-themed revue.
“This Sunday, you’ll catch a glimpse of our VIP witch strip club. Yes, witches on poles! And I’ll be performing alongside ghouls and fiends from the new Terror Vault show. Consider it a sinful sneak peek of the madness opening at the Mint on October 2.”
Continuing to speak about what the fair has to offer, Adeyoha added, “The bondage stage is getting a bigger spectacle. It’ll be pretty much the wrestlers doing their thing. Our DJs and go-gos are going to be near Mr. S [Leather] this time, so it’ll be a really fun block party. I can’t even pick just one. They’re all great.”
There will be several places to purchase alcohol outdoors.
See page 8 >>
Queer content creators say Instagram applies double standard to LGBTQs
by John Ferrannini
Four queer San Francisco content creators and one in New York allege they were treated unfairly by social media giant Instagram. They said their accounts were restricted or even deleted under the auspices of rules around “sexually suggestive” content.
Three of the five told the Bay Area Reporter that Instagram alleged they were selling or buying sex through the platform – charges they say are baseless.
“What I was told flatly, directly, was that because my butt was in the photo, nudity constitutes the solicitation of sex,” said Cameron Cash, a gay man who runs the account @camofthecentury.
As the B.A.R. researched the issue for this article, more queer people and organizations came forward.
Most recently, the Exiles, a storied San Francisco woman- and queer-centered educational Leather/ BDSM organization, said its account was taken down last month entirely with no specific post cited, just as the city readies for the Folsom Street Fair.
Jesus Gutierrez, a gay man who is the co-founder of Yes Homo, a gay lifestyle brand, said the problem is so pervasive that “everyone who runs a queer business, I feel like, goes through this somehow, someway. It’s like a rite of passage, sadly.”
Another tactic the creators claim Instagram uses is so-called shadow banning, which refers to secretly hiding or downplaying content in user searches and algorithms without notifying the creators.
Niko Storment, a queer trans man who is production organizer for the San Francisco Trans March, said that the estimable annual event’s Instagram page was deleted the day after the 2024 iteration. (The Trans March takes place the Friday of Pride weekend.)
Storment runs the Trans March’s Instagram account @transmarch.
“We never engaged – I’ll be very clear – in any kind of sexual whatever,” Storment said. “A lot of my business dealings would happen through Instagram because I’d be hiring people based on their profiles.”
When Storment was using Instagram in helping organize a party at Public Works during Pride
weekend 2024, Meta flagged a conversation with a queer creator, who wishes to remain anonymous, being hired for the party as Storment “hiring someone to do sex work” and shut down all his accounts, Storment said.
“Queer culture is often labeled as inherently sexual,” Storment said, adding that the shutdown on the Saturday of Pride weekend in 2024 hurt business – but also queer visibility and community building.
“Luckily, through our network, we had someone who worked at Meta who was able to send in a ticket item,” Storment said, adding it was “reversed by a real human.”
Storment stated there was no issue with the Trans March’s Instagram account this year.
SF queer nonprofit deplatformed
Kara Plaxa, a queer femme leather activist who is co-coordinator of the Exiles, told the B.A.R. that she was notified the group’s Instagram account was suspended on August 12.
“The only explanation provided was, ‘Too much activity on your account that doesn’t follow our Community Standards,’” Plaxa stated, quoting the Meta message, which the B.A.R. viewed. “No specific content or posts were flagged, and importantly, all but one of the same posts remain available and compliant on Facebook.”
Plaxa stated the Exiles filed an appeal. But two days later, Meta decided to permanently disable the account.
“No one from Meta reached out directly,” Plaxa stated. “The only communication we received were automated notices inside the app. The first said our account had ‘too much activity’ and didn’t follow community standards. After appealing, we got a final message that Meta ‘reviewed the content and still found it to be in violation.’ At no point were we told what specific post or content was the issue.”
Plaxa continued, “Our community lost 80% of our media reach in a single month.”
Kink
The Bob Mizer Foundation
LeatherWalk participants took a short break outside of the Oasis LGBTQ nightclub during the September 21 event.
Dot
This photo from Instagram content creator Cameron Cash was allegedly evidence of solicitation, according to Meta Support, a charge Cash says is patently untrue. Queer content creators allege Instagram applies a double standard to LGBTQ people.
Courtesy Simon Malvez
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The race to replace gay San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman in his seat representing the Castro and Noe Valley on the board as District 8 supervisor is heating up. Gay cafe owner Manny Yekutiel announced his candidacy September 19.
Yekutiel, 36, owns an eponymous cafe in the city’s Mission district, but is a Castro resident. He’s one of several who the Bay Area Reporter previously reported was considering a bid in the race, which will be in November 2026, when Mandelman is termed out.
Yekutiel spoke to the Bay Area Reporter after a listening tour of the Castro Monday, September 22.
“I’m starting this campaign by listening,” he said in a phone interview. “All I did was ask the questions, ‘How’s agoing? What do you need? What do you want to be improved?’ and I took lots of notes. That’s the kind of supervisor I want to be. Before I tell you what I think should happen, what do you want? What do you need?”
One of his top priorities is going to be housing, saying he sees it as “a justice issue and a small business issue as well.”
“I’m going to be tenacious in trying to make sure projects get built to the extent that I can,” he said. “Really working with the community, working with people to build housing, working with people trying to fund new development.”
Asked what some good sites may be in District 8 for housing, he said he’s just starting to seek community input.
“Every neighborhood is different, right? Duboce Triangle is different from Dolores Heights, which is different from Cole Valley. … So, there’s some neighborhoods that don’t mind density or height. They have different issues.”
Nonetheless, because many housing developments are on land that wasn’t being utilized, Yekutiel wouldn’t be among those sounding the alarm about neighborhood character being impacted negatively – arguing instead that more housing “means more people filling these neighborhoods with life.”
“I am not as afraid of neighborhood character being affected by new housing,” he said.
Mandelman has already endorsed Yekutiel, telling the B.A.R. in a September 19 phone call that, “I think he’s accomplished an amazing amount for a relatively young person and I’ve been just incredibly impressed with what he’s done with Manny’s, on the MTA board and with the Civic Joy Fund, and I think he’s well known in the district, has relationships in the neighborhood and he’s going to be a very strong candidate and a good supervisor.”
Yekutiel co-founded the Civic Joy Fund with Daniel Lurie, before Lurie was elected mayor last November.
Yekutiel told the San Francisco Standard that he is running to be “the builder supervisor.”
“More housing, more businesses, more ideas, more events,” he said. “For too long, we thought of the government as an entity that can stop things.”
That focus on housing harkens back to a high-profile event he held earlier this year with liberal columnists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, promoting their book “Abundance,” which is about cutting red tape particularly around housing. The B.A.R. reported that Yekutiel had praise for the book at the event, saying it could be Democrats’ answer to Republican President Donald Trump after losing the 2024 election.
In a way, the supervisor bid is an outgrowth of what Yekutiel has already been doing. As the B.A.R. previously reported, in addition to running his cafe, Yekutiel is also executive director of the Civic Joy Fund, which helps produce events across the city, from the Castro Night Market – the next iteration of which after September 19 will be on Halloween night – to Downtown First Thursdays.
When asked why he wanted to be District 8 supervisor, Yekutiel tied the political ambitions to his prior work. He said, “My decision to run for supervisor is an extension of the way I’ve tried to serve my community in the last 10 years since I’ve been here,” and that the city has seen “a lot of positive momentum, but
SF gay chorus
by Cynthia Laird
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus,
a nationally known choral group, will need to start looking for its next chief executive officer soon. Christopher Verdugo, a gay man who holds that position, announced September 23 that he will step down at the end of the chorus’ 2025-26 season next June.
When he departs, Verdugo will have led the nation’s first and oldest openly gay chorus for 10 years. In a phone interview September 22, he said it was time
for him to step down.
“I want the organization to move forward with fresh blood,” he said.
Verdugo said that he came to the realization during a three-month sabbatical at the beginning of 2024. He was also mourning the death of his mom, who passed away in 2020 of cancer at the onset of the COVID pandemic.
“I took time to grieve and reflect,” Verdugo said of his sabbatical.
The chorus’ board is expected to soon launch a nationwide search for Verdugo’s successor at the nonprofit,
there’s still a lot of work to do and a lot of ways the Castro can be made better.”
D8 issues
On the matter of the imbroglio between the Castro Theatre operators, Another Planet Entertainment, and the Castro Coffee Co. and nail salon, Yekutiel said, “I think at the end of the day it’s extremely important these businesses be able to stay in the neighborhood.”
“It does hurt my heart as a coffee shop owner myself, as a brick-and-mortar owner. These businesses have been here a long time,” he said. “At the same time Another Planet is putting $40 million into the neighborhood, and that’s considerable. … My hope and expectation is a compromise is met.”
The B.A.R. also asked Yekutiel about how he would advocate for District 8’s policy priorities if they came in conflict with Lurie’s, citing the B.A.R.’s reporting from earlier this year that Mandelman blamed displacement of people with mental health and drug addiction issues from downtown – a Lurie administration priority – for an increase in deteriorating street conditions in the Castro. Mandelman had stated, “I have supported and continue to support Mayor Lurie’s efforts to restore order in some of our more troubled neighborhoods. However, it seems plain to me that these efforts have led to the displacement of people with severe mental health and substance abuse challenges to the Castro. This cannot continue.”
Yekutiel said that as a supervisor he will leverage relationships to advocate for District 8 residents.
Mandelman “has done a lot of this. I’ve seen it first hand,” Yekutiel said. “When he sees a need in the neighborhood, he does text the police captain. I would be no different.”
On public safety, Yekutiel said he’d work for more beat officers in District 8.
“If I were elected supervisor, that’s one of the first things I would work on, is bringing beat cops back,” he said.
Potential rival Gary McCoy, a gay man, stated to the B.A.R. September 19 that, “I’ve spent my career fighting for San Francisco, from leading our city’s
LGBTQ Democratic clubs to pushing for more housing, better public transit and worker protections. It would be an honor to serve this community, and I’m seriously considering a run. I’ll be making a final decision soon.”
Potential rival Tom Temprano, also a gay man, had been listed in the B.A.R.’s report. Temprano stated to the B.A.R. that he has “no official plans to run for supervisor at this time.” He had served as Mandelman’s de facto chief of staff at City Hall, his former boss’ early endorsement of Yekutiel could be a signal that Temprano is unlikely to enter the race.
After Temprano was elevated in the spring to managing director at Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights group, speculation has grown that he is in line to one day become its executive director. A DJ and nightlife promoter, he had served as an elected trustee of the board governing City College of San Francisco.
As for Yekutiel, he had flirted with the idea of running for mayor in the 2024 race following his being stuck in Tel Aviv for several days when international flights were grounded at the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in response to the terrorist group Hamas’ attack on the country in October 2023. While he opted against doing so, he did resign from his seat on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors after his returning home that fall.
After the experience in Tel Aviv, he said queer Jews were sometimes held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza.
Manny’s has been vandalized in the past with antisemitic graffiti. Recently, as the B.A.R. reported, at least two windows were broken, and the San Francisco Police Department investigated the matter as a hate crime.
The cafe hosted a Queers Against Antisemitism event in January, where Yekutiel opened up about his own personal story.
Yekutiel, a native of Los Angeles, said his father, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, had immigrated to Israel from Afghanistan, and that he himself was from Los Angeles, where as a youth he
figured he was gay “as soon as I saw the live-action ‘Hercules,’” he quipped.
“I had a bag packed in my closet with all of the things that I might need if my family were to find out that I was gay,” Yekutiel said. “I had my Social Security card, I had a change of clothes, I had some food, I had a couple books.”
Yekutiel recalled that when he still lived in the City of Angels, he went to his first gay bar.
“I didn’t know any other gay people and so I snuck in to this gay bar, got kicked out immediately, the security guard pulled me up by my shirt – it was Rage in West Hollywood – but I had walked into my first gay bar and, as I learned over the years, a queer bar, a gay bar, is one of those sacred places that no matter who you are, no matter where you’ve come from, you can go in, you can get a drink and you can begin the adventure,” Yekutiel said.
“People came up to me at El Rio and said, ‘You don’t belong here. You have to leave. You’re not welcome here. You’re a murderer. You are a genocider,’” he said, referring to the San Francisco LGBTQ bar.
Yekutiel reflected that it was “very sad” that LGBTQ spaces became “places of anger, of hatred.”
“All of us have our own individual story, our own reasons for being there,” he said, referring to LGBTQ bars and other spaces. t
with a goal of ensuring a seamless transition and continuity of vision, according to a news release.
Since his appointment in 2016, Verdugo has guided the chorus through a period of extraordinary growth and resilience, the release stated. He oversaw milestone performances, groundbreaking tours, and an expansion of the chorus’ missiondriven programs that continue to resonate with communities locally and nationwide.
Verdugo, 53, said that he does not have his next opportunity lined up. He plans to spend time with his family –his father is ill – on the East Coast and then use the skill set and knowledge he’s learned to work in consulting.
Achievements
Verdugo’s leadership is distinguished by several achievements, including the official opening in 2023 of the chorus’ now permanent home, and the nation’s first community space dedicated to
Stephen Lee Crouch March 23, 1955 – May 13, 2025
Stephen Lee Crouch died on May 13, 2025 after a valiant, decadelong fight against polycythemia vera (bone marrow disorder), then acute myeloid leukemia. Throughout his illness, Steve bore his misfortune with fortitude and quiet courage.
At an early age Steve left his place of birth, Exeter, New Hampshire, for the East Coast to live the independent, iconoclastic life that he demanded. He was in New York City at the beginning of the AIDS plague. There he joined the newly formed ACT UP, participating in protests and direct action from Wall Street to the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a photographer of ACT UP actions, sparking a lifelong interest in photography. Steve was a multi-talented individual. When he became interested in something, he would master it,
whether it was gardening, photography, or computers. He would then use his skill to earn a living and help others.
His friends are left with fond memories of his absinthe and dinner parties around his petite table rouge, discussing art, history, music, photography, world affairs, and politics, sprinkled with reminiscences of New York, Provincetown, and San Francisco, with dollops of keen social criticism, skewering hypocrisy, and pomposity with humor and insight. He will be missed.
Manny Yekutiel is running for the District 8 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus CEO Christopher Verdugo stood in front of the chorus and spoke to the audience at the chorus’ June 2025 Pride concert at the Curran Theatre.
Stefan Cohen
From the Cover>>
had later been “flagged as inappropriate.”
Asked what the post was of, Walker said it “showed half a butt cheek.”
“That’s not an accident,” Plaxa stated. “That’s erasure. Instagram was how we reached about 77,000 people with education on consent, queer history, and BDSM skills around power dynamics.
… We’re not just teaching BDSM skills. You’ll find us at protests and inside San Francisco City Hall, standing shoulderto-shoulder with our fellow community members, fighting together.”
Plaxa gave as an example the recent protest activity over the former Compton’s Cafeteria site in the Tenderloin.
Plaxa claims Meta-owned Facebook has shadow banned The Exiles’ account.
Nightlife promoter affected
West Walker is a gay nightlife promoter who readers may remember won the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence’s Hunky Jesus contest at Mission Dolores Park during the drag philanthropic group’s Easter party earlier this year.
He runs the Instagram account @ truckdoesdisco for the eponymously named night at The Stud, an LGBTQ bar in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Walker said that Truck’s Instagram was deleted for a time last November for a picture that featured four men in Speedos, one in a jock strap, and one of the men’s hands on another’s back.
“It wasn’t sexual,” Walker said. “We’d definitely posted more scandalous things than that, but that is what we got pulled for and flagged.”
Walker said he “had to create a brand new account, and we’ve been following the guidelines and haven’t posted anything anywhere near as scandalous.”
But then, in the spring, his connected personal account was disabled because his personal account shared a post months earlier from the initial Truck account that he’d been tagged in but that
Walker decided to try to get in touch with Meta Support. When he did, he was told that “even just sharing something I had been tagged in was violating community guidelines,” he said. (He said he no longer has the emails.)
“That just did not make sense,” he continued. “I started keeping a file every time I see content I think violates community guidelines. I started taking screenshots of those and I’ve got 10, at least, of female content creators showing full areolas, in some cases full vaginas.”
Walker still operates with limits on his accounts. He can’t monetize his accounts or use the live feature that allows a webcast. He said that on average, there’s been a 75% drop in viewers on Truck’s posts, which he attributes to shadow banning.
“My mom is a Southern Baptist minister’s wife, and I wouldn’t put anything I wouldn’t want her to see,” he said.
Instagram, owned by Menlo Parkbased Meta, which also owns Facebook, Threads, and Whats App, didn’t return a request for comment for this report.
Meta also didn’t return a request to comment on the particular cases.
Paige Collings, a queer person who’s a senior speech and privacy activist at San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the B.A.R. that these tactics are all too common.
“When we’re talking about LGBTQ content creators and queer content online, what we’re talking about is an algorithmic silencing of this content,” Collings said. “We know – particularly over the past two years, and especially since November of last year – that we’ve seen a proliferation of censorship of LGBTQ content. The first way is an intentional censoring of content: algorithms say it’s harmful for children, or depicts nudity. The other part is shadow banning, which is difficult to track and less predictable.”
Collings said that when someone is shadow banned, “the algorithm is tracking [the account] for a specific reason, so that the account is not promoted in the same way other content would be if it were about, say, erectile dysfunction instead of queer rights.”
Either way, “there is censorship of this content, regardless of the mechanism,” Collings said.
Instagram’s policies
Cash said that “Instagram does not claim shadow banning is real.”
“However, they do limit the reach of certain posts algorithmically via hashtags and AI,” he said, referring to artificial intelligence.
Instagram’s posted policy on its website is that it has “Community Standards that define what’s allowed in order to
keep Instagram an authentic and safe place for inspiration and expression. If we’re made aware of a post that goes against our Community Standards, we’ll remove it from Instagram. While some posts on Instagram may not go against our Community Standards, they might not be appropriate for our global community, and we’ll limit those types of posts from being recommended in places like Explore and search results.”
The policy continued that, “For example, a sexually suggestive post will still appear in Feed if you follow the account that posts it, but this type of content may not appear for the broader community in Explore and search results.”
The Community Standards proscribe adult sexual exploitation; child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity; and adult sexual solicitation and sexually-explicit language.
Multiple media outlets have reported in the past that Instagram has unfairly targeted LGBTQ content for removal and shadow banning.
Last year, LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD reported in its Social Media Safety Index (SMSI) that, “LGBTQ content is disproportionately censored via removal, shadow banning, demonetization, or ‘graphic content’ overlays” on Instagram, which it called “part of a larger, troubling trend” that is “is particularly upsetting in light of Meta’s failures to mitigate the vast amount of hate-fueled and violent content that researchers say Meta has allowed to proliferate across its platforms.” This year’s social media report, lwhich GLAAD released in May, blasted Meta for changes in its “Hateful Conduct” policy.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this year a loosening of the rules over hate speech and abuse on the platforms – which include Facebook and Instagram – citing “recent elections,” the Associated Press reported. Zucker-
berg also dropped fact-checking in favor of a “Community Notes” system similar to what X installed after Elon Musk purchased the company formerly known as Twitter in 2022.
As part of the policy changes at Meta, it clarified in its community standards that “we do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like ‘weird.’”
The 2025 GLAAD report stated, “Meta should remove these harmful exceptions from its ‘Hateful Conduct’ policy and provide LGBTQ people with strong protections against hate, harassment, and violence on its platforms.”
EFF’s Collings said it’s ironic that Meta is uplifting homophobic and transphobic content while silencing LGBTQ accounts.
“There’s a proliferation of hateful content being shared on these platforms,” Collings said. “If we look at Meta’s revision of community standards, it’s permitted content that would’ve previously been swept up as transphobic and homophobic, and this was done with the intent of increasing freedom of speech, that the conversation offline should be able to happen online. Unfortunately for queer people, for trans people, a lot of content that is discriminatory and offensive is now being promoted on these platforms. That change really did underlie an evisceration we’ve been seeing for a long time of protections for queer content creators.”
Asked about the matter, a GLAAD spokesperson stated to the B.A.R., “The LGBTQ community not only faces outsized levels of online hate and harassment, we also experience disproportionate content removals and censorship.”
“Platforms disproportionately suppress LGBTQ content, via removal, demonetization, and shadow banning,”
the spokesperson continued. “As noted in the SMSI, Meta and other platforms must strengthen and enforce (or restore) policies that protect LGBTQ people and others from hate, harassment, and misinformation, and also from suppression of legitimate LGBTQ expression.”
The spokesperson also stated that Meta isn’t following best practices around transparency for content creators, that users sometimes feel a sense of total helplessness when promulgated rules about how to appeal aren’t followed, and that often people at the company can’t be reached.
A 2021 University of Michigan study found that, “moderation algorithms appear to flag queer content more than non-queer content” on the platform.
Shadow banned
Cash said he noticed he was shadow banned a month ago when his user name became harder to find in the search function.
“When you put in my username, ‘camofthecentury,’ usually you put ‘camofthe’ and mine would come up. There’s not many user names that start that way. A month ago, I noticed I had to put in the entire username,” he said. Instagram claimed he was soliciting sex after it took down a photo of Cash tied from behind in multi-colored ropes. Some of his buttocks are visible on the right side of the photo.
“What I was told flatly, directly, was that because my butt was in the photo, nudity constitutes the solicitation of sex,” Cash said. “That was a shock. It made me take a huge step back.”
In a text discussion between Cash and Meta Support viewed by the B.A.R., Cash stated, “There is no seeking or offering of sexual favors,” and in response Meta Support stated, “Actually, as per system, nudity falls under sexual solicitation. But I do understand what you are trying to say.”
This Yes Homo T-shirt featuring New York City LGBTQ bars was taken down from Instagram for alleged support of “dangerous organizations.”
Courtesy Jesus Gutierrez
Kara Plaxa, left, and Tammy Wright are the co-coordinators of the Exiles, which had its Instagram taken down without a specific post cited.
Courtesy Kara Plaxa
People carried a sign at the 2024 San Francisco Trans March, for which the Instagram page was deleted the following day, organizers said.
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When free speech is not free
President Donald Trump and Brendan Carr, his henchman at the Federal Communications Commission, struck a major blow to the First Amendment last week. Carr implied on a podcast that he could stifle Jimmy Kimmel, the host of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for comments he made during his September 15 monologue about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. But Carr didn’t have to lift a finger. The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, did the dirty work for him, yanking Kimmel off the air just hours before the show’s planned broadcast September 17. Late last year, ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit, agreeing to pay $16 million to Trump, who was then president-elect.
night host
In another stunner this summer, CBS informed Stephen Colbert, the host of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert,” that it was canceling the show in May 2026, allegedly for purely financial reasons. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce that CBS’ announcement was made just days after Colbert criticized, on his show, the $16 million settlement CBS’ parent, Paramount Global, agreed to pay Trump regarding the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview last October with Kamala Harris, then the Democratic presidential nominee.
Disney made its decision regarding Kimmel after Nexstar and Sinclair, both owners of numerous TV stations across the country, announced that they were preempting his show. Nexstar is in the process of acquiring even more TV stations, which would require regulatory approval from, you guessed it, Carr’s FCC. After Disney announced that Kimmel’s show would return Tuesday, both Nexstar and Sinclair stated that it would not air on their stations, so many people won’t be able to watch it.
Last week, Trump was pleased that Kimmel’s show was suspended, telling reporters that late night hosts are negative toward him. “I have read some place that the networks were 97% against me, again, 97% negative, and yet I won and easily [in last year’s election],” the president said on board Air Force One returning from his state visit to the United Kingdom. “They give me only bad publicity [and] press. I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.”
That’s not how it works in this country. The First Amendment gives broad protection to speech, and
legal observers have said that the FCC couldn’t revoke licenses over political disagreements, as the BBC noted. But we know that this Trump administration is unlike any other. The president and his officials have gone up to the line – or crossed it, in our opinion – on numerous issues: immigration, trans rights, universities, public health, you name it. Trump is behaving like an authoritarian leader who can stop things he doesn’t like or punish people who don’t like him. He doesn’t care about the Constitution and he has a supermajority of conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who think nothing of overturning precedents or otherwise ruling in favor of this administration. And while free speech is a bedrock American principle, we must all realize that could change. It’s how dictators consolidate their power – through intimidation, fear, and illegal actions.
Trump threatens a crackdown on mainstream media and political opponents, all in the name of preventing political violence. But that’s not really what’s going on here.
Peter Baker, who writes for the New York Times, summed it up in a recent analysis.
“But Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly made clear in recent days that he has a different goal. For him, it’s not about hate speech, but about speech that he hates – namely, speech that is critical of him and his administration.”
After eight months of Trump’s second term, some people, at least, are beginning to realize that his policies aren’t helping Americans at all. There has been no reduction in grocery prices, and his tariffs have been partly to blame for an uptick in inflation. Far from “winning,” farmers, tech workers, and others are at the mercy of the administration’s half-baked ideas that lack follow through. The Department of Homeland Security’s immigration tactics are horrendous, with many people detained who are U.S. citizens, have permission to work in the country, or have no criminal records. So naturally, Trump will go after critics.
At the height of the right-wing furor over Kirk’s killing, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who never passes up an opportunity to shower her boss with praise, had the temerity to suggest that hate speech is actually a real category of crime. “There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what
happened to Charlie, in our society,” Bondi said on the podcast of Katie Miller, the wife of Trump immigration enforcer Stephen Miller. “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” Bondi tried to walk that back, later posting, “hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment.” That is quite different from what she initially said.
In fact, this is a clear pattern in this administration. Officials will say something that is not true, and then walk it back. The president has a uniquely Trumpian approach. He will say something untrue and then marginally qualify it, with an “I don’t know,” or “maybe that’s true,” to give him wiggle room to deny or muddy the issue. We saw this all the time during his first term, and it has become a standard of his in this second term as well. Meanwhile, people are often left confused, which is exactly what the administration wants.
It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago, Trump was promoting himself as an advocate of the First Amendment. He championed it in his address to Congress in March and said he had “brought free speech back to America.”
Not anymore. His recent actions clearly show that the freedom of speech is under attack like never before. PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, which saw its funding gutted by Congress, noted that Democratic members of Congress have been threatened by the administration and grants have been pulled because of the language they include, including over LGBTQ health and other issues.
We’re glad that Kimmel is back on the air. Disney should have never suspended him in the first place. Companies, like law firms, universities, and hospitals, must stand up to Trump, as so many activists are. It’s a shame that’s not the case with UC Berkeley, which is providing names of 160 students, faculty, and staff to the federal government to comply with an investigation into allegations of antisemitism on campus. Many hospitals, as we’ve noted, have stopped providing genderaffirming surgeries and/or care to trans people under the age of 19. You can’t appease a bully by giving in – they always come back with new demands and it becomes a never-ending cycle. Instead of capitulating, people need to say “Enough” to Trump and his sycophants. We must continue to speak out against blatant wrongdoing like what is happening over free speech, because if that is lost, we will be dangerously closer to losing the country we knew. t
Ruling creates a closet for some students
by Ryan LaLonde
My brother and I grew up in a closet. After our parents divorced in the mid-1980s, our mom wasn’t open about her relationship with her partner – now wife – Sue. At the time, she feared that coming out as a lesbian could cost her custody of “her boys.” That fear wasn’t irrational. Family court systems often operated under the presumption that LGBTQ+ parents were inherently unfit.
We knew we were a “queer family,” even if we didn’t yet have the words for it. In those early years, it sometimes felt like we were the only family like ours. There was no representation of families like mine in the media or in children’s literature. Lesléa Newman’s “Heather Has Two Mommies,” the first mainstream children’s book about queer families, wouldn’t be published until 1989 – four years later –and even that could only begin to capture the spectrum of LGBTQ+ experiences.
Since then, representation has expanded significantly. Today, stories featuring LGBTQ+ families and characters occupy entire sections of libraries and bookstores. These books are invaluable not only for LGBTQ+ children and those with LGBTQ+ parents, but also for their peers. They foster empathy, expand worldviews, and affirm that diverse identities are part of the human experience.
Inspired by my own upbringing, I authored a children’s book, “Families Come in All Different Shapes, Sizes, and Colors.” I wrote it to help my son navigate the beautifully diverse world of his school community – and to illustrate that when kids with queer parents meet, they often share an instant, affirming connection.
These personal experiences inform my lens as the first openly LGBTQ+ elected school board member in the Alameda Unified School District. Which is why I am deeply disheartened by the recent Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a decision that sets a dangerous precedent for public education.
In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court ruled in a 6-3 decision in late June that public school districts must notify parents and offer an opt-out option for curriculum that contradicts the religious beliefs parents wish to instill in their children. The case, out of Maryland, centered around elementary school students being exposed to books that portray LGBTQ+ families and characters – books that have been instrumental in making countless students feel seen and valued.
While this decision was narrowly focused on LGBTQ+ content, its implications are vast. California law already allows for limited opt-outs in areas like comprehensive sex education and state assessments. This ruling, however, paves the way for a much broader and more subjective interpretation of what content may be considered objectionable on religious grounds.
There are between 4,000 and 10,000 recog-
nized religions, faith groups, and denominations worldwide. It is simply not feasible – or educationally sound – for public schools to tailor curriculum around every possible belief system. At what point does curricular “exposure” become conflated with indoctrination?
This ruling opens the door for parents to demand opt-outs from content related to evolution, climate science, critical race theory, and significant aspects of U.S. and world history. The potential for undermining evidence-based, inclusive education is immense – and troubling.
But ultimately, the students who are opted out will be the ones most harmed. They will be forced into a different kind of closet – one of ignorance. Shielded from the realities of the world around them, they will miss out on opportunities to engage with diverse perspectives and identities. They will lack the foundation to understand, appreciate, and coexist in a pluralistic society.
In California, our commitment to inclusive public education remains solid. The California Education Code and the California Department of Education continue to require an age-appropriate curriculum that reflects the diversity of our communities, including LGBTQ+ individuals and families. Our public schools will continue to reject bias and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Depictions of our families will not disappear. LGBTQ+ students – and students with LGBTQ+ parents – will not go back into the closet. Instead, it may be the children of those who fear exposure to diversity who will find themselves isolated from the rich, multicultural, interconnected world we live in.
As educators, policymakers, and community leaders, we must ensure that all students have the opportunity to thrive in learning environments that are inclusive, affirming, and grounded in truth. Representation is not indoctrination – it’s education. t
Ryan LaLonde, a gay man, is an elected trustee of the Alameda Unified School District, where he serves as vice president.
Ryan LaLonde, right, Alameda Unified School District board vice president, was joined by San Bernardino school board Trustee Abigail Medina at the Equality California Leadership Summit August 25-26.
Courtesy Equality California
Late
Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves Tuesday.
Randy Holmes/Disney
SF church leaders ring a toll for gun prevention
by Matthew S. Bajko
For five minutes on the first Friday of each month, the Reverend Rob Herrmann can be found outside Bethany United Methodist Church in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood ringing a hand bell. He has done so since being named pastor of the congregation last year in July.
Herrmann and the handful of folks who join him for the monthly action start at precisely 9:35 a.m. and end at 9:40 a.m. They do so to call attention to the daily gun violence that pervades America and the need for lawmakers to adopt common sense laws and regulations to address it.
“It is a tolling mourning the people who have died due to gun violence and for sane, reasonable gun laws in this country,” explained Herrmann to the Bay Area Reporter as he clanged a bell the morning of September 5 on the street outside the church, located at the intersection of Clipper and Sanchez streets.
As he did so, Herrmann handed out an orange flier to people walking their dogs or running by on Sanchez Street, one of the city’s Slow Streets it designated at the start of the COVID pandemic to provide residents with a safe venue for outdoor recreation. The handout explains the bellringers are taking part in “Ring Out Danger,” an ecumenical campaign that enlists houses of worship from different denominations to join the monthly end gun violence demonstrations.
“As people of faith, we revere life as the greatest gift, and view the taking of life as wrong,” states the flier. “To signal our mourning and to protest the ongoing lack of meaningful action to rein in the epidemic of gun violence, faith communities across the country are joining in a campaign to publicly mark this mourning and protest through tolling of bells, blowing of shofars and conches, and any other sounds sacred to any community of faith.”
at the church. He also is a founding member of Bell Appeal, a handbell choir sponsored by Bethany UMC but whose membership is open to the public. He has only missed a few of the ring outs since last summer.
“As often as I am here in town,” said Eaton of his participation.
Rain or shine Herrmann tolls the handbells and will next do so the morning of October 3, with anyone welcome to join him. To Herrmann, he views the monthly actions as “building a community” of likeminded people when it comes to gun prevention efforts.
He allowed there’s no way to judge if the ring outs have had any discernable impact. Rather, he quoted the late Saint Oscar Romero, prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating mass.
“We are prophets of a future not our own,” Romero had said.
Recent actions in SF
The action was begun by the Unitarian Universalists of Petaluma in California’s Sonoma County north of San Francisco on June 2 in 2023, as it fell on the first Friday of June, which is yearly observed as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Leaders of the church recruited clergy and parishioners from other churches and synagogues in town to join in.
Herrmann, a gay man, participated as he was serving at the time as pastor for both St. John’s UMC in Rohnert Park and Petaluma UMC. He has only missed ringing bells on two first Fridays ever since.
“I think it is important to participate in something visual,” he said. “It is an outreach and an opportunity to engage with the community.”
He acknowledged that the timing of the ring outs makes it hard for most people with jobs to participate. Thus, rarely is there a large pool of participants.
“I know the time is difficult for people to make work,” noted Herrmann.
Joining him for the first time earlier this month was filmmaker Yuriko Gamo Romer, who lives nearby the church in Noe Valley. As she rang the handbell Herrmann had provided to her, Romer remarked, “This is a workout.”
A staunch anti-gun person, she told the B.A.R. that she decided to take part in the action because she doesn’t think guns should be allowed on city streets.
“It is a nice morning to ring some bells and hopefully have some people pay attention,” said Romer, whose latest film “Diamond Diplomacy” about baseball fostering ties between Japan and the U.S. will have its debut next month at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
A frequent participant has been Michael Eaton, a gay man and lay leader
Local leaders have taken action in recent weeks to address gun violence. In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie in early September launched a new Pierce’s Pledge Gun Safety Storage Program at the San Francisco Police Department in partnership with District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill and gun violence prevention leaders.
The program allows city residents to surrender their firearms at any of the city’s 10 district police stations to be securely stored for up to one year at no cost rather than keep them at their homes.
It is named after Pierce O’Loughlin, who was fatally shot by his father, Stephen, in January 2021 in order to prevent his ex-wife, Lesley Hu, from vaccinating their young son for COVID. Stephen O’Loughlin also took his own life that day.
“My son Pierce was murdered with a gun by his father, my ex-husband, in his apartment in San Francisco’s Marina district. Pierce was only 9 years old, and I was fighting for custody to keep him safe. Shockingly, what happened to Pierce happens every six days in America,” stated Hu in announcing the new program. “Our partnership with SFPD sends a powerful message: Protecting children during custody disputes is a shared responsibility.”
Under the program, before the oneyear mark of when a person stored their firearm via a city police station, they will be contacted by the police department about reclaiming it. If they wish not to, they can sell or transfer the title to a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer, provided that the firearms are legal to own or possess and the person has the right to title the firearm, noted the mayor’s office.
“This program represents a simple idea with a powerful goal: To save lives by helping families remove firearms from the home during volatile circumstances,” stated Lurie. “Safe gun storage saves lives, whether it prevents a suicide, an accidental shooting, or the kind of tragedy that Pierce’s family has endured.”
Added Sherrill, who represents the
Marina on the Board of Supervisors, “This program honors Pierce’s memory and stands as a powerful step toward preventing violence in our city.”
In Sacramento, Governor Gavin Newsom has before him to sign or veto Assembly Bill 1078 by Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), which would update California’s firearm laws to align with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions calling for a text-and-history test when evaluating Second Amendment cases related to firearm regulations. Sponsored by Attorney General Rob Bonta, Berman’s legislation also would create a purchasing limit of three guns per 30 days in the Golden State.
“California has long been a leader in implementing commonsense firearm laws, and those laws save thousands of lives. As the Supreme Court creates new standards for evaluating the Second Amendment, our firearm laws must evolve to remain effective and continue to save lives,” stated Berman.
And AB 1127 authored by Assemblymembers Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco) aims to prevent guns from being easily converted into deadly automatic weapons by prohibiting the sale of any semi-automatic handgun in California that is easily convertible into a fully automatic machine gun. It also awaits Newsom’s signage.
“Let’s call this what it is: reckless greed from gun manufacturers who know their products can be turned into illegal machine guns,” stated Stefani, a former District 2 supervisor who has long championed gun violence prevention. “AB 1127 says enough is enough. If these companies won’t redesign their weapons to protect our communities, California will hold them accountable.”
Gay House candidate fundraises in SF
A number of LGBTQ leaders in the Bay Area are set to host a fundraiser in San Francisco next week for gay U.S. House candidate Brandon Riker
The gay entrepreneur and trained economist who lives in Palm Springs plans to run in 2026 against Congressmember Darrell Issa (R-Vista) should Proposition 50 be passed by voters this November.
The redistricting ballot measure aims to add five more House seats in California to the Democratic column, one being Issa’s 48th congressional district. It would stretch from San Diego County up to the Coachella Valley if Prop 50 is enacted.
Among the hosts for Riker’s event are lesbian former San Francisco supervisor and current Oakland resident Leslie Katz and Scotty Jacobs, a gay man who lost his bid for a San Francisco supervisor seat last year and now leads the new moderate civic group Blueprint for a Better SF. Tickets for the event, which takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, September 29, begin at $100 a person.
Filmmaker Yuriko Gamo Romer, left, joined the Reverend Rob Herrmann, center, pastor at Bethany United Methodist Church, and Michael Eaton in Noe Valley September 5 to ring hand bells to promote gun violence prevention.
Matthew S. Bajko
women. But still, gay and bisexual men accounted for 83% of all new diagnoses last year. Transgender women accounted for 6% of new cases, while trans men made up less than 1%.
While it is hard to draw conclusions about trends from small numbers, these figures reflect larger racial/ethnic and gender disparities across many health indicators, according to Cohen.
“We’re finding that women who are diagnosed with HIV in recent years experience a lot of intersecting vulnerabilities,” she said. “Homelessness, substance use, mental health issues, experiences of stigma and discrimination, and [lack of] access to care are particularly pronounced in that population, which is why we need wrap-around services that address social determinants of health.”
HIV diagnoses among homeless people decreased from 32 to 24 last year, making up 16% of new cases, down
Verdugo said getting The Chan completed was a long process.
“The challenges go directly back to the pandemic,” Verdugo said, adding that the chorus had to cease operations and vacate the building once COVID hit. It also had to stop fundraising, he said. When the organization was able to return, he said it was met with a 30% increase in construction costs.
“The pandemic caused a huge burden on the schedule” for the center’s completion, Verdugo added.
Since its opening, The Chan is doing well, Verdugo said. Programming for the 2025-26 season is expected to be announced in early October. While he didn’t want to go into details, Verdugo did say that The Chan expects to have “several Broadway notables” for cabaret shows in the space.
Programming for the chorus is also expected to be announced next month.
It is presenting a benefit concert to fight cancer at The Chan on October 30 with guest narrator and featured soloist Britney Coleman, a Broadway star of shows
From page 1
“It’s all our usual suspects,” Adeyoha said. “The Eagle, Oasis, Powerhouse, the Foundry, Azúcar Lounge – they have all participated before. Additionally Mother bar is doing a bar in the playground –it’s the playground’s 20th year, so making it more festive. Cat Club is back inside the footprint and is doing an outside bar, and The Stud is also back in the footprint and doing an outside bar.”
from 23% in 2023. However, the proportion of diagnoses among cisgender women experiencing homelessness was high. People who inject drugs accounted for 14% of cases.
“The fact that, overall, the proportion and number of new cases among people experiencing homelessness went down is certainly welcome,” Cohen told the B.A.R. “We have a lot of programs that are working to improve screening, prevention, and linkage to and retention in care for people experiencing homelessness, and I certainly hope that those programs are helping make a difference.”
That difference is reflected in improving care indicators for this population.
The report shows that 88% of homeless people diagnosed in 2024 were linked to care within one month and 68% of those diagnosed in 2023 achieved a viral load below 200 within one year. While this is still well below the 91% viral suppression rate for people with stable housing, it reflects progress over time.
One reason for the improvement may be the advent of new tools, includ-
“Tootsie” and Sunset Boulevard.”
Other highlights of Verdugo’s tenure include executing the “Lavender Pen Tour” with the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus across the Deep South in 2017.
The award-winning documentary, “Gay Chorus Deep South,” amplified this impact worldwide, positioning the chorus as a national voice for equality.
The 2016 election of Republican Donald Trump to his first term as president, just nine weeks after Verdugo started as executive director (he was elevated to CEO in 2022), had a significant effect on the organization and its volunteer singers, he said.
“That changed the trajectory of our work,” Verdugo said, adding that the chorus has been able to uplift the local community as well as communities around the country through its tours.
Trump, of course, was elected to a second term last November and took office in January. He and his administration have worked to erode diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of businesses, universities, the humanities, and federal agencies.
A number of executive orders Trump has signed have attacked the transgender community, immigrants, and others.
In addition, there will be two additional outdoor bars, one in conjunction with Sniffies, the gay cruising website, and another with event promoter Non Plus Ultra, one of the groups behind the Ghost Palace Halloween party at the Palace of Fine Arts.
The leather-themed festivities began September 21 with the annual LeatherWalk, kicking off San Francisco’s Leather Pride week.
“LeatherWalk has been kicking off Leather Week for 33 years, and this
ing long-acting injectable antiretrovirals for HIV treatment and prevention. ViiV Healthcare’s injectable cabotegravir plus rilpivirine (Cabenuva), administered once monthly or every other month, is the longest-acting treatment regimen, while cabotegravir alone (Apretude) is used for PrEP.
“For people experiencing homelessness who are living with HIV, we’ve found that long-acting injectables are often a preferred medication,” Cohen said. “The [Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital] Ward 86 program and its POP-UP clinic, in particular, has been very successful in providing longacting Cabenuva for treatment of people experiencing homelessness and has had some excellent outcomes.”
Looking to the future
This 2024 epidemiology report does not yet reflect the effects of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal funding for HIV prevention, care, and treatment. Experts fear that these reductions will lead to a
“These things that test us, we rose above,” Verdugo said.
Fundraising
Verdugo has been successful at increasing the chorus’ budget, which is now $4.6 million.
“When I first started it was just under $1 million,” he said. “In those nine years it’s grown almost five-fold.”
The release noted that Crescendo, the chorus’ annual benefit, raised $1.4 million this year, the most successful gala in the group’s history.
“We have strong volunteer board members and singers,” he said, adding that he’s grateful to board Chair Tom Paulino.
Paulino, a gay man who had been former mayor London Breed’s liaison to the Board of Supervisors and now works in operations at San Francisco International Airport, stated that the board is grateful for Verdugo’s service.
“Chris Verdugo is a transformational and visionary leader who represents the very best of SFGMC’s mission and core values,” Paulino stated. “We look forward to celebrating Chris’ accomplishments over the next year.”
Jacob (Jake) Stensberg, a gay man
year was another great success with a large community in their fetish gear,” stated Robert Goldfarb, a gay man who’s executive director of the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District that now produces the walk.
“It is a beloved community event for visibility, solidarity, and camaraderie, all of which are more important now than ever before,” Goldfarb stated to the B.A.R. “It is also a fundraiser for the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District that funds our projects, including our Leather Legacy Landmarks sidewalk plaques initiative and legislation enabling once banned community businesses to operate again. The district is facing massive government funding cuts making grassroots fundraising critical. Donations are still being accepted at LeatherWalk.org.”
The first five sidewalk plaques have been installed, detailing the sites of former LGBTQ businesses such as bars and bathhouses. In the 1970s, Folsom Street had been christened the “Miracle Mile” for the long strip of leather bars, BDSM clubs, and bathhouses that had lined it. Today, only a few vestiges of that explosion of sexual freedom remain, though Goldfarb told the B.A.R. he’d like visitors to know that the neighborhood is still a peak destination for leatherfolk and kinksters.
rise in new cases and poorer outcomes for people living with HIV. Earlier this month, advocates held a rally on Capitol Hill to protest pending cuts to HIV prevention, services, and research in the United States and worldwide.
On the other hand, the advent of twice-yearly PrEP could help finally end the epidemic if it’s accessible to those who need it most. Nearly twothirds (63%) of HIV-negative gay and bi men seen at City Clinic were on PrEP in 2024, according to the report, but use lags among women and Black and Latino men. Longeracting options could help close the gap.
The federal Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead Sciences’ lenacapavir (brand name Yeztugo) for HIV prevention in June.
Two large trials showed that the injections given once every six months were 100% effective for young cisgender women in Africa and 96% effective for gay and bi men and
who’s the chorus’ artistic director and conductor, added, “It has been an honor to serve alongside Chris over the past three years. Chris has been a true partner, champion, and friend, and while I will certainly miss his day-to-day presence, the impact of his work will continue to shape and influence our future.”
Verdugo, the choral group’s first CEO, also thanked the chorus’ foundation and corporate partners, along with other donors.
The release stated that his journey in the gay choral movement began when he was 18 when he joined the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida. Three years later, he became the artistic director of Paragon Productions, where he choreographed, directed, and produced theatrical productions for cruise lines and hotels worldwide.
In 1999, he leveraged his expertise in event production and fundraising while working with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and Miami Beach’s Winter Party Music Festival. He also served on the board of the South Beach Gay Men’s Chorus.
Verdugo relocated to Los Angeles in 2003 and shifted his focus to LGBTQ and social justice issues, collaborating with
Jonathan Schroder.
“Mr. S Leather continues to be a pillar of the San Francisco community offering a safe place for the LGBTQ community to explore kink and sexual wellness,” noted city officials about why the business deserved to be approved for the legacy roster. “They are a cornerstone of the Up Your Alley and the Folsom Street Fair, bringing new and familiar faces to the bay.”
Addressing the small business commission, Schroder recounted how he quit his job in Germany and relocated to San Francisco to start working at the store part-time 22 years ago after discovering it while on vacation. Today, the business has a footprint of 24,000 square feet and employs upwards of 100 people.
“I think we have a really world-wide reputation for amazing quality, and I am proud to say it is made in San Francisco,” said Schroder, emphasizing how the business will be “a cornerstone location” for this Sunday’s street fair.
As for gay bathhouses, such businesses may make a comeback thanks to new zoning allowing for such uses in some parts of the city, including SOMA.
As the B.A.R. previously reported, a contractor is planning a traditional gay bathhouse at the site of his former office.
gender-diverse people in the United States and six other countries.
The early rollout of twice-yearly PrEP is now underway in San Francisco. “At this point, we still have very small numbers of people who have been prescribed lenacapavir for PrEP, but we have a major focus on working to get it out into the community much faster than other PrEP tools have rolled out,” Cohen told the B.A.R. “I think everyone in the HIV prevention world is very excited about having a medication that’s given just once every six months that is so highly effective at preventing HIV. That’s really a huge step forward,” she said. “There’s still more to learn about who is going to choose lenacapavir for PrEP, but we are quite excited that we have this new tool, and we are really hopeful that it will reinvigorate the progress that has slowed in recent years.”
The full report can be found at https://tinyurl.com/4m4uhr3n t
various nonprofits, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (now the National LGBTQ Task Force), Equality California, the Human Rights Campaign, and GLAAD. He produced the Queer Lounge at Sundance for four years. In 2006, he joined the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles as a singer, and five years later, he was named executive director.
Under his leadership, the LA chorus built an international reputation for musical excellence, doubled its budget, and expanded educational programs in Los Angeles high schools. It also launched a national music tour titled, “It Gets Better.”
The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus was founded in 1978. It sparked a nationwide LGBTQ choral movement with its first public performance at a candlelight vigil on the steps of San Francisco City Hall following the assassinations of gay supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor George Moscone.
Verdugo said that it’s time for a new leader as the chorus approaches its 50th anniversary in 2028.
“I’m a firm believer that nothing happens without a village,” Verdugo said, “and the village needs someone to lead it.” t
interested in learning about the district can check out its booth at the fair.
“We will have our gear swap and shop at the fair, which is new for us,” Goldfarb said.
According to SF Travel, international visitation to San Francisco is down this year (as is the case for much of the United States), but domestic travel is projected to tick up to 23.49 million visitors, an increase from 23.2 million in 2024, with tourist spending projected to be $9.35 billion. Goldfarb is grateful the city is seeing visitors, and indeed more people are expected to attend this year’s fair than last year’s.
“Some international people are not coming as much to the U.S., so we are delighted to hear that domestic travel is up in San Francisco,” Goldfarb said.
The city’s LGBTQ community in particular is looking forward to welcoming visitors to what, for some, is an entire week of celebrating the city’s acceptance and openness – but not without advice.
Gay nightlife promoter West Walker, aka Wild West, told the B.A.R. that it’s one of the reasons he became a San Franciscan.
One such business, the aforementioned Mr. S Leather, was approved as a legacy business by the city’s historic preservation and small business commissions this month, the latter of which finalizing the designation at its September 22 meeting. Founded in 1979 by leatherman and “Mayor of Folsom Street” Alan Selby, he sold it to Doug Deal nearly a decade later, with ownership again changing hands in 1991 to Richard Hunter. Since 2005, the worldrenowned store has been at 385 Eighth Street and is now overseen by CEO
Kevin Born, a straight man who is CEO of Ashbury General Contracting & Engineering, wants to turn the two-story building he owns at 40 12th Street into a luxurious bathhouse catering to a queer clientele.
His project has yet to have a hearing before the city’s planning commission.
The Folsom Street Fair began in 1984 as Megahood, founded dually as a bulwark against gentrification and to shore up a leather community based in SOMA that was particularly hit hard during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Goldfarb told the B.A.R. that people
“Folsom is my favorite weekend of the year, it’s one of the main reasons I moved to San Francisco,” he stated. “But I wish that I was able to experience the fair prior to the rise of smartphones with their high definition cameras. Keep your phone away, and always ask for consent before taking someone’s photo.”
Gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, whose district includes the fair footprint, didn’t return a request for comment for this report by press time.
For more information about the Folsom Street Fair, visit folsomstreet.org. t
<< Verdugo
<< Folsom fair
The Bob Mizer Foundation
Kink ink!
Cby Jim Provenzano
onsidered the most prominent gay photographer of the male physique in the 20th century, Bob Mizer’s archives have been housed in the former Magazine shop in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district since 2016. Located at 920 Larkin Street, the Bob Mizer Foundation will soon change its name to the Bob Mizer Museum and Photographic Archives, but continues its mission of archiving and preserving the hundreds of thousands of images and films made created by Mizer.
Bob Mizer (1922-1992), who was born in Hailey, Idaho, lived in Los Angeles during the heyday of his career in the 1950s, and endured some legal difficulties over obscenity laws when he used the Postal Service to send photographs and magazines to fans across the country. He was jailed for taking photos of a 17-year-old model. He was later arrested by the Los Angeles vice squad for running a prostitution ring.
Thom Fitzgerald’s docudrama film “Beefcake,” released in 1999, told the story of his life, and although Mizer was for a time a success with his Athletic Model Guild, he did not live long enough to see how extensive his influence would become to male imagery, particularly in homoerotic arts.
To counter that cultural absence, the Bob Mizer Foundation continues to work toward preserving Mizer’s collection. But the story of how it ended up in San Francisco is a fascinating one as well.
On a recent visit to the foundation, President Dennis Bell and archivist Maxwell Zinkievich shared the intricate process of storing, filing, digitizing and preserving the films and photos of Bob Mizer.
Strike a pose
“When I acquired the Mizer estate in 2003, I
home was stuffed with the remains of Mizer’s archives, in some areas almost rotting from neglect
“I’ve always been someone who thinks that family histories and their estates should stay together as much as possible,” said Bell. “So that’s kind of where it started; just trying to keep that estate together and keep it organized and eventually make it accessible for research.”
Bell is a former bodybuilder who already had an appreciation of vintage physique photography. In 1997, he started a website called PosingStrap. com.
“The internet was super young and I created a membership site because I was really interested in the old historical bodybuilding photos,” said Bell. “As a bodybuilder, I had competed, and really liked the old golden age of bodybuilding. I made a photographic membership site with that type of content. There was nothing else like it on the internet at that time, PosingStrap.com was the first. Eventually, I learned where these different estates of the bodybuilders had landed and who the photographers were. That’s what led me to understand and find the estate of Bob Mizer.”
2017 Media Kit a
Mission Statement
The Los Angeles Blade covers Los Angeles and California news, politics, opinion, arts and entertainment and features national and international coverage from the Blade’s award-winning reporting team. Be part of this exciting publication serving LGBT Los Angeles from the team behind the Washington Blade, the nation’s first LGBT newspaper. From the freeway to the Beltway we’ve got you covered.
The Bob Mizer Foundation gallery’s recent exhibit of photos by Reed Massengill
Bob Mizer Foundation
New name, same mission; preserving physique erotica
‘Marinero’ by Bob Mizer 1954
‘Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror’
by Jim Provenzano
I
t may not be unusual for a filmmaker to make a documentary about his father. But when your father is the creator of “The Rocky Horror Show” and its cult film adaptation, things are a little bit different. For Linus O’Brien, he’s struck gold with “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror,” a moving tribute to his father Richard O’Brien’s creation, the musical that became a cult favorite in cinemas for 50 years. It remains the longest-running theatrical cinema release in the world. To celebrate its anniversary, O’Brien (Yes, he’s named after the Peanuts character) interviews his father, and nearly all the living cast and lead crew members.
Unlike some documentaries on the film from previous years, O’Brien managed to get interviews with Sarandon (Janet Weiss), who is often reluctant to join the celebrations.
Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors), Nell Campbell (Colombia), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), and Tim Curry (Frank-NFurter), even Peter Hinwood (Rocky) are among those who describe their early years with the film, and for some the initial musical as well. And of course, Richard O’Brien (playwright, composer, Riff Raff) shares his creative inspirations and sings a few acoustic versions of his songs. Guest commentators include actor Jack Black and drag star Trixie Mattel.
A history of the development of the play, its critical success in London, which failed in America, is followed by the making of the film in 1975. Shot mostly in a damp cold castle in England, justified complaints were made about shooting conditions. Sarandon has often been quoted about the cold,
but admitted that the low budget gave it a sense of edginess.
The film also focuses on the midnight screenings after the film’s flop release. Smartly devised to appeal to the colleges-age set, it was at the Waverly Theater in lower Manhattan where the first interactive hilarious shenanigans started to take place. The development of shadow casts, who mimic the onscreen characters and action in theater aisles, is credited to have been pretty much nurtured by the film fan club president, then late Sal Piro. And now decades later, Linus O’Brien talked about his inspiration for making the film about the film.
Jim Provenzano: Linus, this is kind of a lifetime experience, because you were literally running
around on the set for the film as a toddler, and had a small role in the sequel, “Shock Treatment.”
Linus O’Brien: Yes, apparently, I was on the set for “Rocky Horror,” but I don’t remember it because at that stage I was probably two.
The documentary has a very professional feeling, considering the subject.
It’s nice of you to say, because that was the intent, was to make something that was as professional and as slick and just as well made as possible. Because I think the tendency may be for people who were thinking a documentary about “Rocky Horror” would be made in a kind of rough-and-tumble handmade style. And I didn’t want to do that.
Mick Rock’s ‘Rocky Horror’
by Jim Provenzano
For a short time in between photographing some of the greatest rock legends in the world, prolific photographer Mick Rock (1948-2021), “the man who shot the ’70s,” visited the set of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” to capture hundreds of casual images of the cast and crew from the 1975 cult classic. His posthumous collection, with Tim Mohr, “Rocky Horror: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Cult Classic,” will be released Sept. 30 by Harper/Pop, timed with the film’s 50th anniversary.
Inside the sultry dark slipcase featuring Tim Curry’s face on the cover, the square-shaped book includes hundreds of photographs of the cast and crew. Along with the photos are essays by many prominent people who testify to their enduring love for, and inspiration from, the film, including
I’m impressed that you got interviews with so many actors and crew. Was that difficult, or since you’ve known them so long, was it easier to get people on camera?
It was a little bit challenging, like 5%. It really wasn’t difficult. Obviously, me being the director helped a few of those things, but it was really down to also my team as well. Tim Curry wasn’t difficult to get, but scheduling was a little bit difficult with him. For Peter Hinwood, there was a little bit of back and forth on Instagram with him, telling him, “There’s no pressure; come down, have a good time.”
So yeah, it was just a little bit of very gentle cajoling really. I grew up a lot around a lot of them, especially Nell and Pat when I was up to the age of 10. It was great to catch up with them after all these years.
A unique portion of this, obviously, is your father telling stories and singing a few lovely acoustic
versions of songs from the score, as well as his personal struggles, his journey and his struggles. What an amazing way to be able to celebrate my dad’s life and his work and then talk a little bit about his journey, which took probably 30 years longer than most other people who went to see “Rocky” in the ’70s. That’s very ironic, in a way. Here is the person responsible for bringing transvestites, transsexuality and bisexuality to the screen in a major way and to the stage, and yet he himself struggled with how he identified himself. I mean, at this point, after 30 years, he finally said, “I feel 30% female and 70% male most of the time.”
It really is unique in so many ways.
The legacy of “Rocky Horror,” you can say, is the music, Tim’s performance, people finding their own sexuality, even. But I think really what it boils down to at the end is community and connection. And I think that those two words are just the key insight into the sustaining legacy of “Rocky.” The fact that people are able to meet other people like themselves who feel a bit different, who don’t feel like they quite fit into society regardless of how they see themselves sexually, is its greatest gift to the world.t
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
‘Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror’ plays at the Balboa Twin (38th at Balboa) and Rialto Cinemas Elmwood (2966 College Ave., Berkeley) Sept. 25 & 26. www.rockyhorrordoc.com
‘A Behind the Scenes Look at the Cult Classic’
“Rocky Horror” creator (and Riff Raff) Richard O’Brien wrote the foreword, and other essays include interviews with Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick. Director Jim Sharman, costume designer Sue Blayne, and others are included as well.
Other subjects delve into Rock’s documentation of 1970s rock, but the bulk are glamorous poses by Curry, Patricia Quinn, Meatloaf and other actors, who each get their own sections.
The real prize in the book is of course the photos, most which have never been seen before. They offer a lush and colorful behind-the-scenes look at everyone’s favorite “Sweet Transvestite”–starring film.
Toward the end is a fascinating timeline of the play and film’s history, and the continued events that
filled the years up until the 50th “Transylversary.”
And although he died in 2021, (and cowriter Mohr passed 2024), Rock was aware of the development of the book and got a few quotes in his own essay.
“Maybe the strongest impression that these modest stills project is that everyone appears to be having such a good time,” wrote Rock. “That also may partly account for the delightful potency of this celluloid classic. It’s a privilege to have been of service to such a legendary piece of art.”
The book release is also timed with upcoming exhibitions of Rock’s photos in New York City and Los Angeles.t
“Rocky Horror: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Cult Classic,” by Mick Rock, with Tim Mohr, $50, 256 pages. www.harpercollins.com
Jack Fritscher’s ‘Inventing the Gay Gaze’
by Cornelius Washington
“I wrote this book out of nostalgia for my four San Francisco friends and I finished with admiration for their humanity and how they suffered for their art and kept going despite insult and injury from straight and gay censorship, politically-correct critics, and snotty galleries,” said Jack Fritscher. As editor-in-chief at Drummer’s most compelling and cutting edge, he is the sage, scholar and historian enlightening the culture with his new book, “Inventing the Gay Gaze: Essays and Interviews, Profiles in Gay Courage, Volume 3.”
A touching exploration of four of the biggest San Francisco artists who were and are friends with Jack as they created their groundbreaking work, this award-winning series covers Rex, the snarky, obsessive, pointillist illustrator.
Peter Berlin, the icy blonde porn fashionisto whose videos and stills where he rocked leather and fetish gear brought him worldwide fame.
Fritscher also pays homage to photographers Arthur Tress and Crawford Barton documented the thriving, throbbing San Francisco scene from the hippies in the ’60s to the revered Castro Street clones in the late ’70s.t
Read Fritscher’s full interview on ebar.com.
‘Inventing the Gay Gaze: Essays and Interviews, Profiles in Gay
Author Jack Fritscher
Joan Jett, Courtney Love, Cassandra Peterson and Jinkx Monsoon.
Photographer Mick Rock in 2010
Tim Curry, Nell Campbell, Richard O’Brien, and Patricia Quinn in ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’
20th Century Fox - All Rights Reserved
Richard O’Brien and Linus O’Brien at a recent film festival screening
Margo Station
‘The History of Sound’
by Brian Bromberger
W hat if your greatest love was your first one and any chance of happiness disappeared when it ended? That’s the haunting idea behind the new gay film romance, “The History of Sound.” Seemingly a love story, this movie is really about regret, which explains the plaintive melancholic tone reflected as well in the music and soundtrack. The film stars two of the screen’s current It-Boy heartthrobs, Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, each presumably straight, but each has had big success in gay roles, such as “All of Us Strangers” and “God’s Own Country.”
The film is based on two short stories by Ben Shattuck found in his
t << Film, Music & Theater
book, “The History of Sound: Stories.” Shattuck, who is straight, is also the screenwriter, which is one of the film’s chief problems. The written stories are entirely internalized, which is carried over into the film. This move gives the film a stilted quality, in that there’s little for the two men to do, with inner thoughts conveyed very subtly, hence easily missed.
Oddly, almost all the emotions found in the film, especially of joy and sorrow, beauty and pain, occur in the folk songs. Also, both characters, but especially David, are summarily sketched, revealing little depth.
Ultimately, this is one of those movies that with a bolder, more emotionally-nuanced script could have been
stupendous. The film’s theme of regret applies also to its execution. Consequently, some viewers will relish the movie, while others will be puzzled and disappointed at what might have been. Yet with all its weaknesses, that magic undeniable undefinable aura between Mescal and O’Connor makes the film almost irresistible. But the key word here is almost. t
Read the full review on www.ebar.com.
‘The History of Sound’ (Mubi/Focus Features/Universal Pictures) is now screening at AMC Kabuki 8 theater and Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema. www.mubi.com
by Jim Gladstone
It’s
considered
the pressures of past American tours.
“America has always been presented as this land of career opportunity. There were big expectations,” Wolf said in a phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter ahead of his September
27 show at the Lodge at the Regency Ballroom.
“On the plane, I thought ‘Let’s leave all that insanity behind, all that capitalism, and take each day as it comes.”
Wolf’s first American foray, in 2004, came on the heels of his debut album, “Lycanthropy.” In Europe, Wolf, a singer and multiinstrumentalist had been treated as a wunderkind. He’d begun to amass the fervent following which has grown and remained loyal to his adventurous folkinfused yet often densely synthesized music over the ensuing years.
In 2007, following the release of “The Magic Position,” Wolf returned to play his own shows, and to open for Amy Winehouse. At the time, his record company was pressing hard for Wolf to cultivate a pop persona with mass market appeal.
The expensively produced album had a brighter, more radio-friendly sound that sometimes dulled the sharper, queerer, more feral edge of his best music. In photo shoots and videos, Wolf was given a non-threatening Crayola-colored sheen which he now disparagingly describes as “clownification.”
The efforts to simultaneously show-
case and sand down his sexuality for commercial purposes took a toll on Wolf’s mental health.
A fling while he was in town to a play the Café du Nord on the 2007 tour inspired the song “The Future” on Wolf’s 2011 album, “Lupercalia”: “Summer in San Francisco/Kissing chlorine in the swimming pool/Out of fuel at the Phoenix Motel.”
Substance abuse, romantic and financial turmoil, bouts of depression, a near-fatal hit-and-run car accident, and
the death of his mother waylaid Wolf during the past decade. He stepped away from music almost entirely for the five years leading into 2018.
Now in recovery, Wolf has moved from his native London and to the rugged climes of Kent. He’s converted a garden shed into the music studio where he composed most of the work on this year’s “Crying the Neck,” his first album of new material in more than a decade.
“This is the first time I’m really seeing America in a way,” Wolf remarked about touring with his new work and a new confidence.
“I’ve literally never been sober or clearheaded here before, so it’s all new. I feel quite young in spirit. In the past, there have been expectations that have led to disappointment and resentment. I’ve got no time for any of that now. I just want to enjoy where I am day by day on the road.”
Wolf is traveling solo on a ten-week itinerary, in a rental car loaded with instruments.
“I like the autonomy of this tour, the self-sufficiency, he said. “I can change the set list every night. I can just be really fluid with music and with people.”t
Read the full interview on www.ebar.com.
Patrick Wolf performs at The Lodge at the Regency Ballroom, 1290 Sutter St. Sept. 27, 7pm. $58.40. www.theregencyballroom. com www.patrickwolf.com
‘Limp Wrist on the Lever’
by Jim Gladstone
S
hifting restlessly in my seat during ‘Limp Wrist on the Lever,’ playwright Preston Choi’s erratically comic drama about a trio of teens who have busted out of conversion camp, I felt like it was me who needed an escape plan.
Too long and too talky, but ultimately too shy to take a stand, this half-baked revenge tale strains patience.
Billed as a world premiere, the show feels very much like it’s still in the workshop phase.
“Limp Wrist on the Lever” has been rushed to the mainstage.
There is one aspect of this production that does feel fully articulated: Jenna Lauren Carroll’s scenic design, a visually poetic single set dominated by a cluster of dangling ropes that simultaneously evoke a grove of trees, prison bars, lynchings, and suicide by hanging.
The three queer teen characters each serve as a mouthpiece for a single unwavering point of view: It’s “Let’s get out of here and never look back”
vs. “Let’s eye-for-an-eye our tormenters” vs. “Let’s rise above, communicate warm-and-fuzzily, and collaborate with our adversaries to make the world a better place.”
Only the kumbaya-ing kid, played
with some sensitive shading by River Bermudez Sanders, is written with enough dimension to give an actor something to work with.
The fourth cast member, Kenny Scott, plays a counselor trying to bring the teens back to camp. He’s entirely believable when, early on, he gives his charges some harsh but earnest advice on stoic patience. He’s also believable (though less interesting) later, when he becomes a relentless, masochistic psychopath, for no apparent reason.
Like her actors, director Becca Wolff seems hampered by a haystack of a script from which playwright Choi needs to extract, shine, and sharpen his needles.
Alas, you only get one “World Premiere.”t
‘Limp Wrist on the Lever’ through Oct. 4. $25-$100. Crowded Fire Theater at Potrero Stage, 1695 18th St. www.crowdedfire.org
Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal in ‘The History of Sound’
Mubi/Focus Features/Universal Pictures
Patrick Wolf
Furmaan Ahmed
Ashley Jaye and Kenny Scott in ‘Limp Wrist on the Lever’ Cheshire Isaacs
the Mizer collection.
By 2000, he’d met and befriended Bob Mainardi and Trent Dunphy, coowners of The Magazine on Larkin Street, where the Mizer gallery and archives currently reside.
“I had gone in there many times looking for bodybuilding photographs that I could use on the website, that kind of thing. I got to know them, we became friends.”
In 2016, Dunphy and Mainardi met with Bell and decided to donate their entire collection and their building.
“The promise was there that they’d donate all of that to the foundation that I had established back in 2010, and the building to house it all,” said Bell. “They were making their own estate plans for when they planned to close The Magazine for retirement. They decided that’s what they wanted to happen with their collection.”
He opened an LLC named after Mizer’s Athletic Model Guild, and paid off the Mizer estate in installments over several years. He founded the nonprofit in 2010, and eventually began moving boxes into the upper floors of the Larkin Street building in 2016.
“Eventually, we expanded into more space on the second floor at Larkin as the collection grew. After Bob Mainardi died in 2022, Trent knew it was time to close The Magazine. Their business never really came back after the pandemic,” added Bell. “There were days when nobody came into the bookstore, so we decided it was time to transition and started getting rid of or moving out all of that magazine inventory they had, and getting the retail floor ready to turn into the current photographic gallery.”
Miles of files
The sheer amount of items stored on those shelves is astonishing. According to Bell, the Mizer collection includes 400,000 4”X5” format negatives, 700,000 35-millimeter slides, 2,800 different 16mm movie titles and corresponding film negatives, and inter-negatives that were transferred to 8mm; more than 8,000 reels of film. The library holds about 35,000 periodicals, many quite rare, and 6,000 books. Most of these are photography monographs of the male nude.
The Mizer Foundation is supported by memberships, ranging from $75 to $1000 annually, as well as donations. Membership benefits include free admission to the gallery events and talks, and copies of the quarterly “Physique Pictorial,” an homage to Mizer’s smaller-formatted magazines, which are now rare and valuable collectibles. The new quarterly magazines include portfolios by modern photographers as well as curated vintage imagery by Mizer and his peers. Now in its 73rd edition, some back issues are also on sale at the gallery.
As he led a tour of the building, archivist Maxwell Zinkievich explained the procedures required in preserving
Archival scans of films are not retouched, color-corrected or changed. Zinkievich estimates that they have more than 550 miles of film, “which is just long enough to reach from our headquarters here all the way down to Mizer’s original studios in Los Angeles.”
“Film is a very fickle material,” he said. “It degrades quite easily, quite quickly. Thankfully the archive is solely comprised of safety films. We don’t have any nitrate or anything like that, so it’s less of a flammability hazard, less toxicity, but it’s still a really fragile material.”
The foundation’s purpose is threefold; preservation, archival, and exhibitions.
Mizer himself is known for his encyclopedic categorization of his model’s prints and films, including his own obscure code of hieroglyphic-styled symbols. The foundation’s current archival system is a bit more factual.
Of the actual films, Zinkievich said, “It’s best to digitize the films and then just play the digitization. Because putting a really fragile film element through a projector is not good. The projector is quite a violent apparatus.”
Zinkievich showed film cannisters and their original labels, and newer plastic cannisters that are among the films that have been digitized.
“Throughout Mizer’s material specifically, in comparison to other physique photographers like the contemporaries, Mizer always has this sense of whimsy, of not taking himself too seriously, of allowing the audience to relax and not be caught up in the pretense of it,” said Zinkievich. “There are always smiles on the models’ faces. It’s always about joy in a lot of ways. I think that lends itself to really being able to enjoy the material.”
Said Zinkievich, “We at the foundation understand how important Mizer’s material is. His legacy and this work are not only important for
the history of erotica, but also for the history of queer men’s identity and understanding, showing that it still exists in this beautiful, fun, joyous way and isn’t necessarily something that we all need to be afraid of. And that sort of visibility and legacy is something that is palpable and seen in the material.”t
The Bob Mizer Foundation’s current exhibit, ‘Stuart Sandford: In Youth is Pleasure,’ through Nov. 29. Next: ‘Spanko! AMG and the Rise of the Spanking Community,’ a panel with Justin Stephens and a screening of Mizer’s short films, $10, Sept. 25, 7pm. 920 Larkin St. Gallery open Tuesday-Saturday 12pm to 6pm and by appointment. www.bobmizer.org
<< Bob Mizer From page 11
Bob Mizer self-portrait, 1950s
Bob Mizer Foundation
Left: Den Bell shows some archived Bob Mizer prints Above: Maxwell Zinkievich in the Mizer archives
